France · Montagne de Reims

Roland Champion

A Chouilly grower Champagne house whose chalk-grown Chardonnay anchors a range that also draws on Meunier and Pinot Noir from the Marne Valley.

The producer

Roland Champion farms 14 hectares across more than 30 plots, with Grand Cru Chardonnay in Chouilly at the centre of its work. That chalk-grown fruit drives the house Blanc de Blancs wines toward citrus, white fruit, fresh acidity and mineral finish, while separate plot pressing keeps the differences between sites available for blending or single-parcel bottlings.

The range broadens beyond Chardonnay with Meunier and Pinot Noir from Verneuil and Vandières. Stainless steel preserves fruit in Secret d’Aramis, while reserve wine and extended bottle ageing bring creamier mousse, nougat, brioche and broader texture to selected cuvées. Eclat de Craie brings these choices together in a dry, multi-plot Chouilly Champagne.

Known for

Grand Cru Chouilly Chardonnay, shaped through multi-plot blending, perpetual reserve wine and long lees ageing.

Notable facts

The story

The Veuve André Champion Years

In 1942, André Champion died and his 16-year-old son Roland took over the family vineyard. Roland’s mother, Simone, had been widowed and was also responsible for raising her three children. Together they stopped selling all the family grapes as fruit and began vinifying them under the name Veuve André Champion. Roland then trained with Mr. Bony, cellar master of a prestigious Champagne house and a friend of André’s. When Simone died in 1972, the Veuve André Champion name ended. Roland established Champagne Roland Champion from the vineyards and cellar work he and his mother had developed since 1942.

From the atlas

Roland Champion

At A Glance

The Producer

Roland Champion is a family Champagne estate in Chouilly, a Grand Cru village in the Côte des Blancs. The family says it has been in the village for more than 300 years; André Champion began developing the present vineyard holding in 1929. Today the house makes Champagne from its own fruit, so the Chardonnay grown in Chouilly and the black grapes grown in Verneuil are not anonymous blending material: they determine whether a bottle is a chalk-led Blanc de Blancs, a three-grape blend or a rosé.

François took sole charge after Roland Champion died in 2005, while Carole and Clémence later returned after studies in Champagne and North America. Their work continues through a compact estate rather than a vast buying operation, which is why individual plots, reserve wines and vessel choices recur across the labels.

Place

Chouilly supplies the estate’s core wines. In the Côte des Blancs, its Grand Cru Chardonnay becomes bottles marked Blanc de Blancs: Champagne made solely from white grapes, here Chardonnay. That origin explains the white-fruit, citrus and mineral direction of Eclat de Craie, Grand Eclat and Spécial Club, while their different blends, vintages and ageing periods alter body and finish.

Verneuil and Vandières widen the palette. Their Meunier and Pinot Noir enter Secret d’Aramis and Rosé Carat, bringing red fruit, broader texture and a different shape of fruit from the Chouilly wines. A Roland Champion label therefore tells a useful geographical story: Chouilly points toward Chardonnay and chalk; the Marne Valley sites bring the darker grapes into the house’s blended Champagnes.

Soil And Site

Chouilly’s chalk soils sit beneath the estate’s Chardonnay plots, and the wines repeatedly show mineral and saline notes alongside citrus and white fruit. Those soils are not a decorative detail on the label: in a wine such as Eclat de Craie, the chalk-grown fruit keeps a tonic line through more than three years of bottle ageing and its nougat-like lees character.

The Meunier and Pinot Noir sites in Verneuil and Vandières are clay-limestone. Their fruit is used where the house wants another register of Champagne: Secret d’Aramis has white-fleshed fruit and floral notes, while Rosé Carat brings red fruit and a fuller palate. More than 30 plots make these distinctions worth protecting at harvest.

Story

André Champion developed vineyards in Chouilly from 1929, creating the Chardonnay base on which the house still works. After Roland’s death in 2005, François assumed responsibility for both vineyard and house, with support from his wife and mother. The following generation then returned to the family business, so the estate’s present range carries both long-held Chouilly parcels and newer decisions about reserve wine, barrel use and extended bottle ageing.

That continuity is visible in the bottles rather than in a single house style. A multi-vintage wine can combine a new harvest with perpetual reserve, while a vintage or parcel wine can hold one year or one Chouilly site in closer focus. The result is a range that moves from fresh, accessible blends to dry, long-aged Chardonnay Champagnes.

Vineyards And Cellar

The estate farms 14 hectares through sustainable practices including integrated pest management, soil work, grassing and biodiversity planting. Grapes are pressed and vinified plot by plot, keeping Chouilly Chardonnay separate from the Verneuil fruit before blending decisions are made. That separation allows Eclat de Craie to draw from more than 15 Chouilly plots, while Les Partelaines can remain a single-parcel wine.

Stainless steel, large barrels and oak barrels are used according to the wine’s potential. Stainless steel keeps Secret d’Aramis centred on fruit and fresh acidity; 228-litre oak barrels give Les Partelaines a broader, more savoury texture. Perpetual reserve wine adds continuity to selected multi-vintage blends, and three to seven years of bottle ageing across the range softens the mousse and brings lees notes such as brioche, nougat and butter.

Wines

Secret d’Aramis is the broadest blend: 50% Meunier, 10% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from Verneuil, Vandières and Chouilly. Equal parts 2022 harvest wine and reserve wine from a perpetual reserve begun in 2012, it is vinified in stainless steel, aged for more than 24 months in bottle and finished at 5 g/l dosage. White-fleshed fruit, vine flower and elderberry sit over fresh acidity and a structured palate.

The Chardonnay branch begins with Eclat de Craie, then moves into more defined bottles. Grand Eclat 2018 is a Chouilly Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs with more than seven years in bottle and 3 g/l Extra-Brut dosage; yellow fruit, white flowers and a buttery texture give it more weight. Spécial Club 2018 comes from old-vine Chardonnay in a selected year, with ten months on fine lees in stainless steel before more than four years in bottle. Les Partelaines 2019 is the most site-specific expression: single-parcel Chouilly Chardonnay, oak-aged, bottled at 0 g/l dosage as Brut Nature, with citrus, white chocolate, tonka bean and a saline finish.

Rosé Carat makes room for the estate’s black grapes. Its white-wine portion combines 50% Meunier, 40% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay, then receives 10% red wine made from Verneuil Meunier. Red fruit, citrus and fresh acidity meet a more voluptuous texture than the Blanc de Blancs wines.

In The Glass

Across the Chouilly Chardonnay wines, expect citrus, white fruit and white flowers first, followed by a dry palate with fresh acidity and mineral or chalky notes. Long ageing on lees changes the middle of the wine: Eclat de Craie can show nougat and frangipane, while Grand Eclat brings butter and yellow fruit. The finish stays saline or mineral when the dosage remains low.

The blends add another set of flavours rather than merely more body. Meunier and Pinot Noir bring red fruit, floral notes and a broader palate to Secret d’Aramis and Rosé Carat. Mousse, acidity and dosage then determine the feel: 5 g/l leaves Secret d’Aramis fresh but rounded, while 0 g/l in Les Partelaines leaves its oak, citrus and saline grip exposed.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose Eclat de Craie. It is 100% Chardonnay from Chouilly Grand Cru, assembled from more than 15 plots and most of the village’s lieux-dits, so it gathers the estate’s principal grape and place into one bottle. Its current blend joins 50% 2021 harvest wine to 50% perpetual reserve wine; more than 36 months in bottle and 4 g/l dosage add creamy mousse, nougat and frangipane without turning the wine sweet.

In the glass, look for white fruit and citrus on a slender, dry palate, with fresh acidity and a mineral finish. It comes before the vintage and parcel wines because it shows both sides of the house’s work at once: the breadth of Chouilly’s plots and the continuity supplied by reserve wine.

Anecdote

In 1942, André Champion died and his 16-year-old son Roland took over the family vineyard. Roland’s mother Simone had been widowed and was also responsible for the education of her three children. Together, Roland and Simone stopped selling all of the family grapes as fruit and began vinifying them themselves under the name Veuve André Champion. Roland then trained with Mr. Bony, cellar master of a prestigious Champagne house and a friend of André’s. When Simone died in 1972, the Veuve André Champion name ended. Roland established Champagne Roland Champion using the vineyards and cellar work he and his mother had built since 1942.

Final Word

Roland Champion begins with Chouilly Chardonnay, but it does not stop there. Eclat de Craie shows how chalk, many plots, reserve wine and lees ageing can make a dry Blanc de Blancs both citrus-led and creamy; the rest of the range shows what changes when vintage, parcel, oak or black grapes enter the bottle.

Sources

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